PITA
I'm certainly no expert, but I do think about how I can afford to retire .... and there is alot of 'stuff out there' to read. The book I mentioned in my post is a good reference for current events.
cheers, CK
Overprinting currency has been a rather common occcurence in various countries around the world - see this blog:
http://www.dollardaze.org/blog/?post_id=00107&cat_id=17 The money that is created by the Fed's magic checking account is known as base money and consists primarily of Federal Reserve Notes (i.e., paper currency, dollar bills) and bank reserves, which are deposits of commercial banks with the central bank and are recorded electronically at the central bank. Only the Fed can create base money, and the Fed can create no other type of money except for base money. Paper bills make up the majority of base money. At this time, the U.S. Federal Reserve counts about $812 billion of base money, with $750 billion in bills and coins, and $62 billion in bank reserves. During the 1990s, U.S. base money grew at an average rate of 7.14 percent per year ............ (last year was 12%) CK
http://www.dollardaze.org/blog/?post_id=00240 Inflation has only one cause and that is the Federal Reserve itself. In the United States, the supply of money and credit is regulated by the Fed. Since inflation is by definition an increase in the supply of money and credit, only the Fed can create it. If the money supply were held constant, increases in some prices would be offset by decreases in others. The result would be no overall inflation. In fact, without government created expansions of the money supply, the natural tendency of prices would be to decline as technology allowed for more efficient production of goods and services. So while most regard the Fed as the primary inflation fighter, in reality it is the sole inflation creator.
The main problem for consumers is that most inflation is not detected by the Fed's preferred measuring tools. As a result, inflation has been allowed to grow unchallenged.
http://www.dollardaze.org/blog/?post_id=00256